Learning how to enrich your travel experience will give you a more authentic travel experience.
“Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times”
Asian Proverb
If you are like me, the above quote is how we were trained to view travel. The quote is encouraging us to venture forth and see the site for ourselves, rather than hear about it from thousands of others.
I searched for different traveling methods and I found the book, Vagabonding: An uncommon Guide to Long-Term Travel. It helped show how to better view travel and get more fulfillment out of it. I then found sites like Nomadic Matt, the Bucket List family, and even heard on the Afford Anything Podcast how the host did eighteen-month travel.
All of these people have traveled for years at a time. It is a different way to travel. They all have great resources on how to do long-term travel on their sites, and I will cover a little at the end, but for me, the biggest takeaway is the mindset they bring into their travel. This mindset can enrich your travel experience. Even just a weekend getaway.
Before you check the below tips out: Head over to this post to check out 5 tips to better plan and live your travel!
How to Enrich Your Travel Experience
1. Travel isn’t a consumer experience
When browsing for travel, it is easy to compare travel to any other purchase that we are making. A quick google search found a $1,100 per person, seven-day tour around Italy with a company. Purchasing travel packages like this can set that mindset that travel is something to purchase and consumed, much like a morning coffee.
However, those advocates for long-term travel aim to see travel as an adventure over a consumer experience. The distinction might seem esoteric but let’s dig into it a little. In a consumer experience, we experience what the seller intended us to feel. When visiting the Eiffel Tower, we are meant to be swooned by the romance of the sight and swept up in the Parisian fever.
When we see travel as an adventure, we can still swoon (it is Paris after all), but we also can enjoy the experience of getting lost in the metro along the way and can also take a step back to see around the Eiffel Tower. See the Parisian dogs as they prance along the gravel and enjoy a quick picnic in the park with the Eiffel Tower. When viewed as an adventure, it adds a layer of fullness to the experience, highs, lows, and little details along the way seem fuller, than just rushing to get the Eiffel Tower shot for Instagram.
2. Travel doesn’t have to be expensive
Traveling overseas and domestically does not have to be expensive. By separating the thought that, “spending more money means a better experience” from travel, means that travel doesn’t have to get expensive to be fun.
It can be possible to travel to Europe for less than $50 a day and still have a full experience. In some cases, an even more enriched travel experience. The most expensive aspects of traveling are transportation, room, and food. By upgrading all of these along the way, it can take away from the authentic experience while indulging the consumer experience.
Think about it, when you are in your hometown, do you eat out to nice meals every night? Do you live in a high-rise condo? If this is what you are looking for when you travel, do it! I am encouraging you to just be conscious of the choice. By eating street food, and staying in hostels, for instance, you are closer to the cities authentic experience instead of the expensive consumer experience. Some tips on how to travel cheaper are:
- Go in the off-season
- Stay in a hostel or cheaper Airbnb
- Eat street food or cook at the hotel
- Use ride share and public transportation
3. Travel Light
As we learned from travel expert Rick Steves, it is easy to travel light for months at a time. Traveling light also has the benefit that you can move around quicker. If you want to move onto a different city, you can just grab the backpack, check out of the hostel, and move onto the next city on an easy public train. Traveling with several pieces of luggage slows you down and can make you want to stay stationary so it doesn’t feel like we are moving when heading to new cities. Traveling light is an easy way to enrich your travel experience.
4. Immerse Yourself in the Local Culture
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. It is cliched by this point, but the aphorism has a point. See what the locals are doing. Learn from key phrases in the native tongue. Eat different foods, talk to other travelers and the locals. See what they like to do. Still, go see the big sites and attractions of whatever that city has to offer, they are famous for a reason. But after, go do some local things if possible. Take a two-hour lunch at a corner café and people watch like the Parisians. Find people online who teach classes in the city (and speak your language) and go do a class that interests you. Talk and learn from the locals, and gain an appreciation for a different way of life.
5. Embrace the Mistakes
When on vacation, there is sometimes a lot of pressure. There are money and time commitment. When things go wrong, it can almost derail the “magical” experience we are paying for with travel. In all respects, travel can almost be like a normal life. Public transport breaks down, the food at restaurants might be overcooked, and some strangers are mean. When this happens at home, we can brush it off, but on travel, it almost comes becomes an end of the world scenario. Instead, continue to view travel as an adventure where mistakes happen. You are in a different area after all, so it’s all unfamiliar. Forgive the mistakes, try to fix them, and make the most of the experience. Do not let it ruin the whole time away. It is just an added flavor to the trip.
6. Travel for your own Experience
It can be quite common after travel to come home and attempt to tell people all about your experience. They will politely listen and maybe ask a few follow-up questions. Then they will launch into their life while you were away. Don’t travel for the story or the Instagram picture, travel for yourself. What do you want to get out of travel? What do you want to do and see? What experiences do you want to have? Act on your travel as if no one will ask a thing about it. Do what you want to do and make it your own instead of trying to impress others. Enrich your travel experience for yourself, not for Instagram.
Main Take-Aways
- Enriching your travel experience begins with a mindset shift, from a consumer mindset to an adventurer mindset.
- Travel doesn’t have to be expensive. Focus on keeping transportation, housing, and food cheap. You can travel for less while also having a more authentic experience.
- Take is slow. See your big items but save room for small surprises along the way.
- Travel for yourself, experience what you want out of travel.
Action Items
How can you take this mindset into your next trip? Plan a weekend getaway for the near future (when it is safe to travel). Keep it cheap, and practice just experiencing that city. It can even be in your native country, every city has a different experience to offer.
